CF Pages

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

20110201

I am just going to speak to you freely about some things here...

Some of the things I am feeling I find difficult expressing in words. Because if I do, they will become distorted. Usually, these things just need a little more time. But sometimes, they do not need any form of expression at all. Regardless of which it is, what I put down I must put down or else not at all.

But let me tell you of what I am feeling instead of what it is all about. You know that line between patience and impatience; where anxiety meets daring right at the confluence of faith and hope. I am there. Because, my fellow Filipino compatriots, the world is speeding up again.

You know that holiday lull, that sense of a calm in the storm? It's over now and the calm that we felt we now realize was the calm right at the beginning of it.

Moreover, we can no longer afford to be insular in our thinking as a nation. I know this thinking because I used to have it. Before I left for overseas, I thought Filipinos were all there is to our world.

But our world is a community of peoples - a family of nations.

And it is getting smaller in a sense that we must be able to take it all into our mind and hearts to understand how we fit in and how to go forward from where we are.

What's happening in Egypt seems far but it is no longer so. We must remember we are now presently living at a transition into a different age; a twilight if you will, and that in this twilight, it is so easy to be lulled into a deadly complacency.

What we have discovered so far about ourselves as a nation seems easy to dismiss. For they are mostly immaterial in nature. But the work of the heart always precedes the work of the earth. Indeed the calamities we must now face on a planetary scale have all precipitated from a neglect of these same things.

I know that there will be those who will find their security in complacency; that there are those who will deny themselves the effort and the concentration to even attempt to understand the work that is being proposed to us. Indeed I am fully aware that there will be those whose hearts God will harden. It is written.

But it is not for the unwilling that I am writing, it is for you - my fellow Filipino compatriots - for us and for all those other free and willing citizens of our kindred nations in general - all the people of the peace - so that what belongs to you might always be yours in peace and good will. And that we all (including myself) might become better for it - as a nation, indeed as one family of nations.

For in my heart, O my nation, as I know you do, the colors I have chosen to wear is that of our Old Defiant. So I will have nothing to do anymore whatsoever with that Old Compliant: I reject the lie of war (and its train of social and personal sins along with it). Therefore, I must tolerate no division in my heart and strive to constantly uphold the honor of the LORD in my soul. For the LORD is God and He alone is God, one, peerless and eternal: My one, triune Perfection.

So what is happening in Egypt affects us indeed. Therefore, may peace reign in Egypt. May the people over there including our fellow citizens find safety. Above all, may peace reign in the Middle East and in our native Philippines. Let us not forget to put these in our prayers to God today.

We do not have to exceed our promise nor must we hold back on it: We are one whole sky after all, my honorable compatriots.

Today is the first day of World Interfaith Harmony Week:Try to learn something about those who are different from you and use this learning to enrich your sense of our nation today and all this week.

For me particularly, I think the Muslim hijab (head dress) is a beautiful thing. As a Roman Catholic Christian, I see it as a true symbol of a woman's right to choose; it is a practice that encapsulates a freedom that is not license; a responsible freedom; a freedom that leads to good things; a freedom that is pleasing to God Who Himself is free.

Prayer to God as First Defender of the Republic

Look upon us this moment,O LORD, God above all things,and abide with us nowin our necessary struggleas First Defender of this Republicto obtain for our peoplethe remembrance of Thy peaceand the blessings of Thy freedom.

Bless our one Filipino nation,O LORD and Giver of all good things,each and every Filipino heart,that yet believes with convictionin this endeavor of Countrythat we may by our own willingnessbe transformed by Thy abundant mercy.

Tarry with us in the darknessO LORD and Sovereign of all nationshelp us, teach us, bless usthat we may prosper in Thy sightand in Thy grace and in Thy counselsremain secure in Thy commandmentswalking upright in Thy waysthat we may become the lightthat You want this nationand every nation to beupon this, our midnight world,so much in need of Thy presencelike the daybreak twilight isso much in need of Thee.

For us, Christians, we must add:

This we humbly implorein the Name of Jesus Christ,our most loving Lord and Savior,

AMEN.---<--@

For all the rest:

This we humbly implore,O LORD and one common Creatorof all things, seen and unseen,